Football Overtime

So I was watching the Oakland - J.E.T.S. game this evening that went 12:30 into overtime before Sebastian "My Coach Let Me Try a 76-Yard FG, and Now He's Fired" Janikowski easily kicked a game-winning 57-yard FG. (In a related story, Janikowski celebrated this evening by himself in his apartment by slipping himself rufees and is now passed out.) Anyway, we were one missed FG away from a likely tie for the first time in the NFL since 2002 when, (as I correctly predicted,) Kordell Stewart watched from the sideline while Tommy Maddox lacked the arm strength to throw the ball 55 yards and Plax caught the hail mary at the one yard line and was immediately tackled short of the end zone. Regardless, I had to explain to my mom over dinner how there could be a tie in the NFL, and in typical female fashion, she commented on how that made no sense and how college overtime was better...

Anyway, it got me to thinking that, while I agree that college overtime is better, I don't believe it's perfect. In fact, in typical Ookie fashion, I think I can tweak college overtime to make it (almost) perfect. I would keep the format the same, except by making one simple change:

Instead of starting each "inning" with the ball on the offensive 25 yard-line, each team should kick-off from their own goal line. Here's why:

1. My biggest issue with the college OT is that special teams does not play a big enough role. Football is three parts: offense, defense, and special teams. By including kickoffs, you can increase the impact of special teams. There's still no punting game, but it's better than what we got now.

2. My second-biggest issue with college OT is that the 25-yard line is too close...in college, you're already starting in range of some kickers (see Jeremy "Judge Lance" Ito, Rutgers) while other teams don't have guys that can kick a ball that far off the tee (see [INSERT KICKER NAME], Notre Dame). I know that this could be perceived as a contradiction to the point above, but I don't think that a team should just be handed a game because their kicker is better either. So, you figure that when kicking off from the 30 yard line (standard kickoffs), average field start position is the 25-30 yard line. Back the kickoff up to the goal line should move field position up 30 yards as well--approximately to the opposing 40-45 yard line (10 to 15 yards behind the current starting position). Now you're one first down from being in potential FG range (for a good team).

3. Eliminate the mandatory 2-pt conversion attempt. If you knock starting field position back, you're far less likely to have teams matching score-for-score, so you don't need it.

That's it--let me know what you think.